The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-10-07
SLANDERING MR.. Villas.
LAWYER WEIGH ARRAIGNED FOR
MAKING SERIOUS CHARGES.

He Accuses the Postmaster General
of Stealing Funds and Papers and
Running an Insurance Company
Nine Indictments.
From. the Ne,o York Sun
MINNEAPOLIS, Oct. 3.-There was GEN
uine sensation in the District Court this
morning when the well-known eccentric
lawyer, William WEIGH, was arraigned for
SANDER and libel on nine indictments. Mr..
WEIGH was for many years a resident of
Madison, Wis, the home of Postmaster
General Villas. The two, it is said, were
once intimate friends, but for some reason
WEIGH seems now to cherish a deadly enmity
against Mr.. Villas. Chiefly for his own
amusement, he has been publishing, at his
home, queer little sheet called the Home
Dairy, which has been made the voice by
which Mir. WEIGH has aired his &c centrici-
ties in general and his animosites against
Villas in particular. 1t has been printed in
Minneapolis for two years and before that
in Madison for number of years, Mr.
Welch and his family performing the whole
labor of writing typesetting and printing.
According to the indictments WEIGH, in
the issue of the paper for Dec. 4, under the
heading 'At Home" accused Postmaster
General Villas, when he was attorney for the
Madison Fire Insurance Company, of buy
ing up certain Seth Bentlett to prevent
him from prosecuting a suit against the
company, and of then stealing all the origi-
nal papers in the suit from the office of the
county clerk, and afterward, when in Wash
ington, refusing to give any information as
to the whereabouts of the papers.
The second charges Mr.. WEIGH with say
ing in his paper of the same date that the
late Timothy Brown, together with William
Proudft William Dudley, Philip Fox, Viii
liam F. Villas and Buel F. Hutchinson, all
officers of the Madison Insurance Company
are guilty of embezzling Sl75,000 Of the
conpany's property. The fourth charges
the defendant with accusing Mr.. Villas, in
company with other officers of the company,
of subscribing to spurious security in order
to improve the credit of the company, and
OF concocting a sch ne by which the city
of Madison was defrauded of SIS, 600, which
Mr.. Villas appropriated to his own benefit
The fifth Indictment declares that Mr..
WEIGH has accused Mr.. Villas Of destroying
and rendering insolvent the same company,
and of dividing the surplus assets among
the directors who had signed the spurious
security fund The remaining indictments
are repettions of the preceding ones in
different forms
Mr.. Welch listened attentively to the
reading of the first Indictment, waived the
reading of the remainder and pleaded Not
guilty" He said he would like to have the
case continued until the next term, as he
would be compelled to subpoena a number
of witnesses from an adjoining State
County Attorney Davis objected to this,
but consented to have the case set for Oct.
&c. Mr. Davis then moved that the defend
ant furnish bill of particulars as to what
his defense would be. Judge Young said he
had never heard that it was customary to
make such an order in cases of this kind, but
if Mr.. Davis could furnish him with eta
tions he would hear the argument for the
motion on next Saturday.